Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Is the NWA World Championship still a premier championship? Part 1

The
NWA: National Wrestling Alliance was a coalition of promoters that came
together to essentially rule the wrestling landscape and set boundaries
or territories that each promoter was to
adhere to when running their shows. Also they worked together to
declare one World Heavyweight Champion that would tour the territories. Their first champion was Orville Brown of Sharon, Kansas.

Orville Brown, NWA Champion 1/5/1948 - 11/27/1949

For 45 years the NWA World
Heavyweight Champion was THE recognized wrestling champion worldwide.
Cable television, tape trading, the expansion
of the WWE (then WWF), and Ted Turner buying Jim Crockett Promotions
(renaming the promotion WCW) eventually lead to the demise of the NWA as
it was originally intended to be.

Initially WCW recognized the NWA World Championship as their premier title;
however in 1991 WCW established their own World Championship and
recognized current NWA Champion Ric Flair as
their champion. WCW stripped Ric Flair of the championship on July 1,
1991 when he left for the WWE; however the NWA continued to recognize
Flair at their World Champion until September 8, 1991 when Flair entered
the WWE.

The
NWA didn’t recognize a World Champion for almost 1 year until a
tournament held by New Japan Pro Wrestling where Masahiro Chono defeated
Rick Rude in the Finals to become Champion on August
12, 1992. This year long lapse where a champion was not recognized was
the first blow in the NWA losing credibility. There was nothing to
keep the NWA fresh in the minds of the fans.

Masahiro Chono NWA World Champion 8/12/1992 - 1/4/1993

After
Chono won the NWA World Championship WCW began to recognize both titles
on their programming. Eventually the NWA World Championship made its
way back to perennial champion “Nature Boy”
Ric Flair who won the title from Barry Windham on July 18, 1993.

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair 9 Time NWA World Champion

On
September 1, 1993 after a disagreement with the NWA Board of Directors
WCW withdrew from the NWA leaving the NWA with no national stage and no
major promotions left to carry the NWA banner
hurting the integrity of the Championship even more. The NWA stripped
Ric Flair of the World Heavyweight Championship. New Japan Pro
Wrestling also withdrew from the NWA in 1993.

The Big Gold Belt used from 1985 - 1993

Another
blow to the NWA was the fact that WCW physically possessed the belt
that had been recognized at the NWA World Championship belt since 1985
aka the Big Gold Belt. WCW renamed the title
the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship until it was
unified with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on June 23, 1994.
The Big Gold Belt became the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. For
the casual fan the belt that was the symbol of the
NWA since 1985 was still being presented at the premier championship
they just didn’t realize it was technically no longer the NWA World
Championship.

Let’s
take a moment to assess where the NWA stands at the time when WCW
withdraws. The group is led by a 3 person Committee in Steve Rickard
from New Zealand, Dennis Coralluzzo from New
Jersey, and Howard Brody from Florida.

World Heavyweight Championship: Vacant 9/1/1993

World Tag Team Championships: Vacant 9/1/1993

National Heavyweight Championship: Vacant 9/28/1986

World Junior Heavyweight Championship: Vacant since 1989

The
former NWA World Television and United States Championships were absorbed
into the WCW Versions of the titles and the NWA never created their own
version again. There are countless regional
championships with the NWA name attached to them, but we are only
focusing on the national championships that give the NWA a national
name.

At
this point the NWA is essentially dead. The grand vision that was
started back in Waterloo, Iowa in 1948 is no more. We can clearly see
now that the glory days of the NWA are over, but
back then these three men try their best to keep the NWA alive and
bring it to the forefront once again. After the withdrawal of WCW and
NJPW the NWA is reorganized with a few promotions recognized by the NWA
board.

In
1994 the NWA is gearing up to re-crown their World Champion bringing
back the prestigious “Ten Pounds of Gold” domed globe version of the
belt that was first worn by Harley Race in 1973
and last worn by Ric Flair 1985. NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling
promoted by Tod Gordon proposes to hold the tournament at his promotion
as they have the largest TV coverage of all the existing NWA Promotions.

"The Franchise" Shane Douglas officially recognized as an NWA World Champion

I’m
sure most of you know this story by now. On August 27, 1994 Shane
Douglas wins the tournament pinning 2 Cold Scorpio at the ECW Arena in
Philadelphia, PA and is declared the new champion.
He then cuts a scathing promo that the NWA is dead and throws down the
title and declares himself the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. Shortly
thereafter the ECW withdrew from the NWA and rechristened themselves
Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Once
again the NWA name is tarnished they have now gone a year with no
recognized major champion severely damaging the credibility of the NWA
World Championship as a viable title.

Chris Candido NWA World Champion 11/19/1994 - 2/24/1995

November
19, 1994 the NWA finally crowned a new World Champion in Cherry Hill,
NJ when Chris Candido defeated Tracy Smothers in a tournament final.
This tournament was held in conjunction
with Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling, however the affiliation
was brief. On February 24, 1995 Candido lost the Championship to Dan
Severn in Erlanger, KY at a SMW house show. Severn then became a
touring champion leaving the SMW territory.

I
can see the appeal of putting the Championship on Severn, multi time AAU
wrestling champion, 3 time US Olympic Team Alternate, and he was
competing in the UFC. He had legitimacy like the
old school NWA Champions. In 1995 he would go on to win the UFC 5
Tournament, The Ultimate Ultimate 1995 Tournament, and the UFC
Superfight Championship and the whole time he carried the NWA World
Championship Belt to the Octagon with him.

Dan "The Beast" Severn 2 time NWA World Champion

However,
they never really mentioned the NWA belt on the shows, and UFC at that
time was not accepted main stream like it is now. It was viewed as
barbaric and was banned in most states,
so it’s not like he was bringing huge publicity to the NWA. In fact
Severn’s over 4 year reign did nothing to elevate the NWA in anyway.

The
NWA did receive some minor national recognition with a brief and failed
invasion of the WWF (now WWE) in early 1998 lead by Jim Cornette. You can read a
detailed account that I wrote about this
angle here, and you probably should before continuing with this post.

Essentially
Severn joins the Angle March 30, 1998 billed as the NWA and UFC Champion, a shooter
and is put over as a shooter stretching the Headbangers on his debut.
He would go onto win most of his matches
with submission holds and he was billed as the NWA Champion, however he
was never put in any high profile angles or matches as NWA Champion and
only wrestled mid-carders. I’m pretty sure the NWA Championship was
never even defended in the WWE. By June of
1998 Severn was no longer as billed as NWA Champion and in the end this angle essentially buried the NWA.

Severn’s
last match in the WWE was a house show on February 21, 1999 in
Springfield, MA teaming with Tag Team Champions: Jeff Jarrett & Owen
Hart defeating The Godfather, Val Venis, & Steve
Blackman. A couple weeks later on March 14, 1999 in Yokohama, Japan
Severn lost the championship to Naoya Ogawa.

Severn’s
time in the WWE did nothing to elevate the NWA or the Championship.
As soon as he was no longer being recognized in the WWE has NWA Champion
he should have dropped the title. Instead
he spent the next 9 months as a WWE mid-carder then as soon as he left
he drops the belt.

The NWA did promote a great card to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the NWA on October 24, 1998 in Cherry Hill, NJ. However, it was the only significant NWA card held that year.

In
1999 6 years since the reorganization of the NWA they still don’t have a
national presence, and their affiliation with WWE was a bust. They
have affiliates all over the United States and
a few in other countries, but their 4 year World Champion did little
build the title.

For
the next couple years the NWA continued to struggle to bring themselves
back to the forefront of wrestling. They returned to the national
spotlight when they signed a deal with Total
Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) giving TNA exclusive rights to use the
NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships as their primary
titles. The current champions Dan Severn and The Shane Twins were
stripped of their titles.

Ken Shamrock NWA World Champion 6/19/02 - 8/7/02

At
TNA’s first show on June 19, 2002 in Huntsville, AL they crowned a new
World Heavyweight Champion in Ken Shamrock. World Tag Team Champions
would not be crowned until July 3, 2002 in Nashville,
TN as AJ Styles & Jerry Lynn would defeated the Rainbow Express:
Bruce & Lenny Lane in a tournament final.

NWA
would flourish over the next 5 years as TNA brought back credibility
and prestige to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. NWA’s secondary
titles even though not defended on the national
scene were elevated to the casual fan as the name NWA was becoming
recognizable again.

Christian Cage 2 time NWA World Champion

In May 2007 as the end of 5 year agreement was coming to pass TNA decided to withdraw from the NWA. On May 13, 2007 at the PPV Sacrifice the NWA World Champion Christian Cage competeed in a triple threat match against Kurt Angle & Sting and at matches end Kurt Angle won and was declared the first ever TNA World Heavyweight Champions. The NWA World Tag Team Champions: Team 3-D were declared the first ever TNA World Tag Team Champions. At the end of the PPV NWA officially vacated both championships.

However, unlike when WCW withdrew NWA did not wait a year to crown a new champion. Instead they immediately announced a tournament and that they were going to reclaim the glory of the championship.

Thank you for reading Part 1. If would please follow my blog and like this page on Facebook or follow me on Twitter to learn about future posts. Also please feel free to leave a comment and stay tuned for Part 2!

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